News 06.02.02-06.08.02

iLounger, Roland Y. sent in a tip on how to use the newly released QuickTime 6 Preview to encode MP4 music and convert it to a .MOV for use in iTunes.

“I have exported a CD audio (cdda) track to MP4 using QuickTime 6 Public Preview. Rename the .MP4 to .MOV and drag and drop the file into iTUNES - wow iTunes plays it without any problems. What I have now is audio encloded as MP4 playing in iTunes. I have changed the bit rate to half what you would normally use for iTunes MP3 files, so instead of 160 kbit/sec I use 80 kbits/sec and the file sizes are much smaller and their is no difference in sound quality.”

iLounger, “mag4” posted information in the forums for any readers wanting to know how to use an iPod with their PC laptop. This is mag4’s first post to the forums.

“Get ready to spend some cash. I got my iPod working with my Dell Inspiron without a problem on the first try. Your FireWire port on your laptop is probably a 4 pin, so you’ll need to buy a 6 pin to 4 pin FireWire cable. Assuming you have a 4 pin port, you’ll want to buy a powered FireWire hub, so you can charge the iPod while connected. The hub is not necessary though you’ll need to manually put the iPod into FireWire mode and you’ll need to be careful that the batteries don’t run out since the 4 pin FireWire ports do not supply power. I got my hub on ebay for 11 bucks. Finally, you’ll need the software. EphPod (what I’m using) is free but it requires an extra program to read the drive. When you download the program, you get a 14-day trial, I think the full version costs $50. Another program called Xplay is downloadable as a beta and is estimated to cost $50 when the final version is out.”

“Several readers discovered that The Apple Store now offers
the refurbished iPod 5GB MP3 Player for $299 in its “Special
Deals” section. (Click on the graphic in the left sidebar to
find it.) That’s a $40 drop and the lowest price we know to
be available. A 90-day warranty applies.”

On one hand you have the iPod, a fantastic MP3 player, contact manager and all around notes, news and lyrics toting FireWire drive, but as many of our readers have expressed in the past, “Why can’t I download my photos from my digital camera to the iPod and use it as a “digital wallet”? The new Mine digital storage device and MP3 player from Terapin Technology can download images from your digital camera and offers an array of ports and features in a compact unit.

iPoding reports that HeadRoom, online retailer of headphones and headphone amps has released the iPod Bag. The bag retails for $49 and can be ordered in black or gray.

“Our iPod Bag has been specifically designed to hold the iPod, an Airhead amp, and a pair of Etymotic headphones (or any other earbuds), while providing you with all the access you need to operate the stuff.”

Many European Apple Stores online are now offering personalized engraving for the 5GB and 10GB iPod. Check with your regional Apple Store for pricing and availability.

At the bottom of the page, “Visit other Apple stores around the world”For more info…

Tuesday, June 4, 2002

Software: PodWriter 1.5b7 Released

“PodWriter is a simple Java app used for creating notes viewable on your iPod. Just open the app, enter a title, and the body of the note. Save it, and ! (bam)... Copy the note to the Contacts folder on your iPod, and now you have a note on your iPod (assuming you have updated your iPod firmware to 1.1). I’m sure there’s a word/character limit, but I don’t know what it is.”

What’s new in 1.5b6:

“Fixed the copy/paste issue and added a Select Contact Folder menu option and cleaned up the menu a little.”

“EphPod is a program designed to make your iPod work with Windows. You will need a program to let you read Mac drives through Windows for EphPod to work properly. Currently, we recommend MacOpener. It has a free trial, so you can try it before you have to pay for it.”

What’s new in 2.31:

Get Outlook Contacts now supports Mobile phone number, Notes field

Support for VCard carriage returns added

Now will create missing iPod directories on startup

Bug fixes:

Deleting Contacts bug fixed

Canceling make playlist from selected now won’t make a blank, empty

playlist

Bug when adding only songs that existed on iPod fixed

Toggling Include Subdirectories in sync folder selection fixed

Misc. cosmetic changes

EphPod developer, Joe Freshman, will soon incorporate a help file for users to easily view a list of features and explanations for all the functionality in EphPod.

“Small Dog Electronics offers the Link-It FM 300W Transmitter for the iPod for $19. That’s $4 off for dealmac readers and the lowest price we’ve seen. The Link-It transmits the audio from your iPod to any nearby FM radio. (It’s identical to the more expensive iRock sold by Apple.) Offer ends June 10, 2002.”

iLounger, Timi, developer of the German website Apfelautos.de writes in to inform us of his Apple Autos photo gallery. The gallery showcases photos of cars with Apple stickers on them. So far there is only 2 photos from the U.S. Check out his website and submit your Apple Auto photo.

We have have mentioned the Soundbug in recent reports, but this report is the official release of the sound generating device to the U.S. market. The following is an excerpt from the official press release.

“PORTLAND, Ore., June 3, 2002 - Wave Industries Ltd., today announces the availability of the Olympia Soundbug, an innovative audio device that turns any hard, smooth surface - such as a tabletop, door or window - into a sounding board for music or voice. About the size of a small mobile phone, Soundbug is a portable alternative to headphones or loudspeakers for use with products such as portable CD, MP3, Minidisc and cassette players, hand-held game consoles, camcorders and laptop computers. Olympia Soundbug is available via the Web at www.soundbug-us.com for $49.95. Wave Industries’ Soundbug is the first in a series of consumer products the company plans to market under the Olympia brand name.”

“A reader discovered that Amazon.com renewed its stock of the
Apple iPod 10GB MP3 Player for $471.97. It’s still the best
price we’ve seen by $10, and shipping is free. (Add it to
your shopping cart to see the discounted price.)”

Update: A representative at STM has sent us an excerpt from the official iPod Armour press release:

“Does your iPod need a home? We have designed one. STM is soon to release a suit of armour for your iPod, complete with protective flap, headphone pocket and slim and practical design. The front flap covers a transparent face, with a circular hole for the dial. Armour is uniquely designed for the iPod with holes in all the right places.”

iLounger, Tom K. informs us that Australian based company, STM, makers of “luggage for the global digetari” as stated on their website will be releasing the iPod Armour. The pouch style case is made from nylon with a pouch for your earbuds. It’s due to ship in mid-June.

iLounger, “parkov” writes in the forums about a Dutch website, MacOSX.nl reporting a rumor from an anonymous reader who discovered the next iPod Software Updater 1.2 on the Apple website. Adriaan Mol at MacOSX.nl translated the story into English as follows:

“Someone who wishes to be anonymous found that for a short period of time Apple accidently uploaded the new website for iPod Software Updater 1.2. He tried to download the new version of the iPod Software, but it failed with a not found error. But on the site he found information about the new version and saw the new version supports date and time, calendar, visualization and graphic EQ functionality.”

Note: iPoding is reporting the above story also and thinks that “the image looks a lot like a mock-up made by iPoding member “dapper” and posted in the Discussions back in March, the images are now gone from his mac.com gallery.”

“Within iTunes or the Finder it is not possible to transfer tracks or playlists from your iPod to your Mac(s). iPod2iTunes (i2i) is the only utility which allows you not only to copy but to synchronize tracks + playlists from your iPod(s) to your Mac(s). The synchronization ensures that you don’t produce duplicate MP3 files on your disk as it is easily the case if you just copy files from the iPod via other methods.
“

What’s new in 1.0.1:

“On some 10.1.4 systems the OS version check failed. This should always work now.”

“PodWriter is a simple Java app used for creating notes viewable on your iPod. Just open the app, enter a title, and the body of the note. Save it, and ! (bam)... Copy the note to the Contacts folder on your iPod, and now you have a note on your iPod (assuming you have updated your iPod firmware to 1.1). I’m sure there’s a word/character limit, but I don’t know what it is.”

What’s new in 1.5b6:

“Command keystrokes for opening/closing/importing/saving files. When you first launch this beta, select your Contacts folder on your iPod. Once you do that, you can use the option to save to contacts folder in the File menu. If anything is missing or not working right, mail me and I’ll fix it as soon as I can. Prefs file is stored in /Library/Preferences/PodWriter.prefs until I can save it somewhere else.”